


You like me too much

by timid_owl



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (very poorly), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dealing with Emotions, M/M, Past Diego/Lila, Past Klaus/Dave - Freeform, They are going to be ok, well happy-ish sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25736857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timid_owl/pseuds/timid_owl
Summary: Despite common belief, loving someone too much is not always the best option, and it’s rarely the most practical one
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	You like me too much

Diego duly waits until it gets better. Everybody says “time heals” and “cheer up” and “ there will be others”, and Diego doesn’t really believe it, but he appreciates the gesture nevertheless. Diego waits and waits and waits and if it doesn’t hurt to try, than he isn’t sure what does. A good cup of cyanide starts to seem like a decent option, or maybe offering Five to teach him shaving – at least it would be a nice clean death. Painlessness rises some questions though, but Diego highly doubts it could possibly get any worse.

He decides it’s time to maybe do something about it when he dreams, and in his dream Lila takes him by the hand, and strikes his short-again hair, and sings that he’ll never leave her and he knows it’s true. And in the morning his head is so empty he can’t figure out neither how nor why people tend to get out of bed.

As a rational man, he decides to seek some expertise in the matter. He therefore says, How do you do this? And Klaus says, Well, all you need is a really good gin, the one in dad’s cupboard is, for instance, quite suitable… And Diego says, Klaus!

‘Diego?’ Klaus says, his face a careful blank so you can’t really tell whether he’s mocking Diego, or just tries not to fall out of the common reality into some more cheerful one. Diego sighs, and rubs the bridge of his nose, and wonders if it’s too late to chose the cyanide option, and says,

‘That guy from ‘Nam, you erh… Well, you…’, Diego closes his eyes for a second and gives himself a mental slap, and continues, ‘How do you live with it?’

Diego looks at Klaus and realises opening his eyes was a mistake. Opening his mouth might have been one too, but Diego cautiously avoids that thought. For a couple of seconds Klaus stares into a nothingness behind Diego’s shoulder, his eyes a thin fragile green – and Diego would give anything to never know what he sees there. Klaus’ lips quiver just barely, and so do the wings of his nose, and Diego is absolutely certain he’s about to start crying: loud ugly sobs and whimpers and shaking and a dripping nose, and just the way Diego did himself some days ago when no one else was home. And with surprising clarity Diego knows that if Klaus starts crying, he’ll follow right behind, and that would be no good at all, and whatever the fuck was he even thinking, he _is_ such an moron, isn’t he, and then Klaus says sharply,

‘I might not be the wisest mentor on this one, Dee’, and his voice isn’t exactly trembling, it just goes up in very unexpected places, as though Klaus is singing a song he alone knows, ‘Maybe ask Will, he had some thoughts as I recall, mostly in rime.’

And then Klaus says,

‘And correct me if I’m mistaken, but _your_ lady is alive and kicking, and jumping through time and spice like a cricket in the spring grass, and she seems to like you just fine – which is rather hard to fathom, I’ll give you that. So it looks like in our little dreadful buffet only you, Dee, picked an oyster, so _bon appétit_ and off you fuck.’

And finally Klaus says,

‘I don’t have a faintest idea how to live with _anything_ , Jesus, Diego, look at me.’

And Diego does what he is told, and Klaus looks lost and vulnerable, and so infinitely tired, that all of a sudden Diego thinks that Five isn’t the oldest one – Klaus is, older than all of them together, and that’s just another absurd, crazy unfairness in their crazy absurd life. Diego sighs once again and says, Come on, let’s go then, and Klaus blinks and makes a really stupid face and says, Pardon? And Diego turns his head and looks above his shoulder and says, If I were you, I wouldn’t give me any time to reconsider, come on, Klaus, right leg, left leg, chop-chop. And Klaus _beams_ at him, like a weird bony star, like the fucking Aldebaran, and says, Oh captain my captain, and Diego rolls his eyes.

Diego takes him to town where they stroll aimlessly along the streets and drink milkshakes and Klaus slurps in a particularly insufferable manner and narrows his eyes like a stray cat that had accidentally been petted instead of kicked. They end up in a dusty old cinema, watching some dumb movie and eating a too-salty popcorn and listening the tape crackle quietly. Then Klaus adds a flask of a pretty decent brandy to the equation and says, Here’s looking at you, kid, and Diego snorts ungraciously and can’t remember the last time he had that good of a time.

And then they are home, sitting in the dark corridor, their backs against the wall, and Diego is telling how when he was seventeen he got really sick, diving in and out of consciousness and missing mom terribly and feeling like utter shit. And Klaus is telling how he missed all of them, and how he never had time to say goodbye, and how he tried to fix everything, he really did, but who was he kidding, it wasn’t like he could have saved anyone, no matter how hard he tried. And he says, Oh what a gigantic fucking scum, what’s even the point of speaking to the dead if the ones you love never pick up the bloody phone.

And Diego doesn’t actually have any idea how it all happens: it’s just that one moment Klaus seems like his closest, most intimate being in the universe, and the next moment Diego meets his gaze and catches it the way you catch a baby bird – strong and tender, not letting it escape – and all of a sudden Klaus has the prettiest eyes full of stars. And all of a sudden his breath is warm, and his hair soft, and his lips taste of salt, and the last time Diego took that course of action it ended in a total wreck, but his chest is full of pain, and tenderness, and void, and warmth, and Klaus clings so desperately to his shoulders and smells of popcorn, and old movies and bad poetry. And Klaus rasps, I missed you so much, Dee, and his voice sounds like a brilliant autumn day, and those soft moans are just too much, nobody could have possibly resisted and Diego is, after all, only human.

And in the morning, when Diego opens his eyes and meets an uncharacteristically thoughtful stare, he feels scared, and ashamed and every-second-not-so-slightly turned on because Klaus is very serious and breathtakingly beautiful and extremely naked. Diego gives it a second thought and decides to feel a bit more ashamed still. But he definitely doesn’t feel any regret at all.

And then Klaus says,

I don’t think I can ever love someone the way I love him, Dee, not again.

And Diego says, I don’t think I can ever f-forget her.

And Klaus closes his eyes and says,

Okay then, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

And Diego says, Okay, his voice really soft, and he pulls Klaus closer and feels Klaus’ warmth flowing into his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> MOST of the orthography is intentional? I’m still not native though, so any beta reading is extremely welcome


End file.
